Sharp Jump Seen in Fatal Shootings by Deputies

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shot to death more people in the first six months of 1987 than in all of 1986--a dramatic rise that Sheriff Sherman Block suggested Wednesday may be associated with an increasing number of guns on the street.

Unable to give specific explanations for the trend, Block called this year’s rise in shootings a puzzling “aberration,” one which the sheriff said, “I wish I had a definitive answer for.”

“We’ve sat down and tried to figure out why the numbers (of shootings) are up--it’s clearly an obvious increase--and the single most common response I get is the number of firearms and increasing violence out there, and the increasing concern our deputies have in that area,” Block said.

10 in All of ’86

In 1986, deputies fatally shot 10 people and wounded 25 others. Six deputies were themselves wounded on duty last year.

By June 30 of this year, the 6,400-member Sheriff’s Department had recorded 12 fatal and 15 non-fatal shootings. No deputies have been shot while on the job in 1987.

So far this month, three suspects have been wounded by deputies’ gunfire, bringing to 30 the number of shooting incidents since January. The statistics represent twice the number of persons killed and a 50% increase in the number of those wounded by deputies during the first seven months of 1986.

At this rate, the Sheriff’s Department could well surpass its own record number of shootings set in 1985, when 39 individuals were felled by deputies’ bullets, 16 of them fatally.

“(While) the first six months of the year is usually a pretty good indication of what’s going to happen statistically the rest of the year . . . I’ve just got a feeling the numbers are going to come down by December,” Block said.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman expressed concern over the increase in deputy-involved shootings so far this year, but cautioned that each incident must be judged individually to determine whether lethal force was warranted. He noted that all of the shootings have been reviewed by the district attorney’s office and that each was deemed justified.

Nonetheless, Edelman said, he intends to meet with Block to “see if we can get a better handle on the numbers. Whether we can or not, I don’t know.”

Historically, shooting incidents involving Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies have trailed far behind those of the 7,000-member Los Angeles Police Department, whose own record number of shootings was set at 68 in 1985.

Identical Figures

But as of Wednesday, Los Angeles’ police officers and sheriff’s deputies had recorded the same number of fatal (12) and non-fatal (18) shootings in 1987. And, while that may represent a sizable increase in the number of deputy-involved shootings for the first six months of the year, it is a slight decline for the LAPD from the same period in 1986, when the department recorded 14 fatal and 20 non-fatal shootings.

Overall last year, LAPD officers shot to death 22 people and wounded 31 others, figures almost identical to those set by the New York City Police Department, an agency that has four times the manpower of the LAPD.

Block, meanwhile, said he believes that there may be a correlation between this year’s increase in deputy-involved shootings and an 18% increase in homicides within the contract cities and unincorporated areas of the county that his deputies patrol. He pointed out that four patrol areas in particular--Carson, Firestone, Lennox and Lynwood--have experienced an 82% increase in gang-related slayings so far this year.

“What were the outlying, more rural-type areas of the county are now experiencing more inner-city, urban-type conditions and all of the problems that go with it,” Block said. “A lot of it--which I’ve said many times before--has to do with drugs.”

In the City of Los Angeles, the homicide rate this year has changed little from 1986.

COMPARING POLICE SHOOTINGS A look at how 1986 shootings involving Los Angeles law enforcement officers compare with those from other cities:

Suspects Suspects Population Shootings/ City No. Officers Killed Wounded (in mill.) 100,000 Pop. LA Sheriff 6,400 10 25 2.0 1.75 LAPD 7,000 22 31 3.1 1.71 Chicago 12,500 14 30 2.9 1.52 Philadelphia 6,700 4 16 1.6 1.25 New York City 29,000 20 32 7.1 0.73